Confession time: In 2003, I fell for a very cheesy, direct-to-video romance film called Lucky 7, set on Orcas Island—but filmed at Vancouver Island's scenic Sooke Harbor House. Ever since, I've wanted to make it out to the grand waterfront hotel, located just west of Victoria; when it closed in 2019 following a business fraud scandal and foreclosure, I feared I'd lost my chance. But last year it finally reopened under new ownership with extensive renovations, waterfront restaurants, and big old fireplaces in every room. Someone call Patrick Dempsey and tell him I'm ready for my rom-com retreat.

The venerable Oregon Shakespeare Festival turns 90 years old this year and in its usual mix of Bard classics and other playwrights, they're putting on nothing but bangers. As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and The Merry Wives of Windsor join Into the Woods, The Importance of Being Earnest, and twists on both Hamlet and Don Quixote. The quaint Ashland downtown shows off the best of Southern Oregon. To quote the master himself, "I like this place. And willingly could waste my time in it."

Every five years, Jaialdi erupts in Southern Idaho—a jubilant celebration of Boise's Basque culture, held on the feast day of San Ignatius de Loyola. It's food, dance, sports, and a chance to marvel over the fact that one of the biggest parties dedicated to a culture based on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe is held in, well, Idaho. The 2020 version was postponed a few times for Covid reasons before it was scrapped altogether, meaning the 2025 event is the first in a decade.

In 2020, our sister publication Portland Monthly did a deep dive on Kah-Nee-Ta, a hot springs resort in Central Oregon on the Warm Springs Reservation shaped by treaty negotiations, polluted water supply, a failing lumber industry, and a struggling small reservation town. But last year it reopened after six years, with new tepee accommodations and a menu full of fry bread. We're pulling for this out-of-the-way oasis.

Nothing new about the concept of glamping; we, as a society, have long since embraced that camping can mean canvas tents with king-size beds and fireplaces. The Under Canvas chain has built a dozen such sites around the country near Zion, Yellowstone, and the Great Smoky Mountains, and this spring they go beyond the national park environs to open Under Canvas Columbia River Gorge outside the town of White Salmon. No posher way to stay near my favorite bad art store, ArtiFacts, in Hood River.

It was a roller coaster in wine country dining this year, with Mike Easton announcing a Detroit-style pizza joint in downtown Walla Walla in February, then closing it in October. But there's more afoot out east, including the Salted Mill, new to the space that hosted favorites Whitehouse Crawford and Kinglet, and Easton himself is in the kitchen at fancy farm resort Abeja. Sounds like it's time for another wine trip.

Over the holidays I watched the 2021 documentary Enormous: The Gorge Story about the Gorge Amphitheatre, and beyond all the great snippets of music—Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, and Portland band Joseph included—I enjoyed the soaring drone shots of the state's prettiest stage. Will Brandi Carlile return to her (almost) home turf? Will I make it out to see Dave again after I called him Seattle's biggest rock star? Not sure, but my eye's on the calendar.

When Alaska Airlines announced that they'd add nonstop flights between Seattle and Tokyo (and Seoul) on their newly acquired Hawaiian Airlines in May 2025, my first thought was "darn it, I already bought my ticket to Tokyo." And it turns out I'm not the only one; I've spoken with at least a half-dozen other Seattleites headed to Japan this winter alone to ski the famous Japanese powder. Of course, there have been nonstop options to Tokyo on other airlines for years, but the Alaska/Hawaiian version is just one more way to earn and spend frequent flier miles for the trip. Given that my winter trip won't involve any cherry blossoms, I'm sure I'll be back.